Life Mein Kabhie Kabhie

14

April

Life Mein Kabhie Kabhie is about five college friends who, after graduation, make a Rs 200 bet about who will be the happiest in five years.

Each one defines happiness differently, one wants power, other money, the third wants fame and the fourth, success.

But their pursuit of happiness turns sour because each one makes unforgivable compromises along the way.

This could have been a compelling coming-of-age drama about hopes and betrayals. But director Vikram Bhatt’s treatment of the subject and the writing is absolutely juvenile.

The characters have little depth and so beyond a point, their dilemmas are pure tedium.

The dialogue is pedestrian – the friend who has ambitions to be a great writer agrees to ghost write a socialite’s autobiography for 10 lakh.

When he remarks that he is selling his aatma, the Page three Princess asks, ‘aatma, what’s aatma.’ This is probably meant to very deep but actually it’s comical.

The actors do what they can Aftab Shivdasani has a nice, earnest charm, Anjori Alagh makes an assured debut as the girl who marries a rich playboy for his money but the playboy is played by Raj Zutshi wearing purple, silk shirts and living in, what suspiciously looks like, a hotel lobby so it undermines her efforts completely.

Even Dino Morea has his moments as an upstart industrialist. But this incredibly trite film totally overwhelms their work. There is little life in this one.